Without You
by rae of sunshinexx
Summary: This is for the Stage Door St. Berry Challenge and yeah :  Pretty self explanatory. Rachel and Jesse were never dating in high school, they didn't even know each other and Rachel only saw Jesse when she begrudingly went to see the Revival of RENT.


**Authors Note: This is for the St. Berry Stage Door Challenge. Tell me what you think?**

_One song glory_

_One song before I go_

_Glory, one song to leave behind._

Her eyes were wide, searching his face. A boyish grin, with a sharp jaw line. Eyes that seemed to sear through her soul. And those curls. Never had she thought she'd get to see _Rent_ on stage again, not after the tour had ended. But with the new revival came new leads. With the new leads, came _him._

_Find one song,_

_One last refrain._

_Glory, from the pretty boy front man_

_Who wasted opportunity. _

Roger had always been Adam Pascal to her and she was skeptical to hear of this new man coming to take the part of her once beloved Broadway icon. Well, one of her many. But this, this was different. It was beautiful, pitch perfect, soothing and she was slowly slipping into his voice, hanging onto every word he sang.

_One song,_

_He had the world at his feet._

_Glory, in eyes of a young girl,_

_A young girl._

Never had he gotten distracted, it had never been his way. But those brown eyes in the front row caught him off guard, as if he'd seen her before. As if he'd heard her sing before. "_Do you know what's worth fighting for? When it's not worth dying for?_" _American Idiot. _She was Whatsername, and she was phenonmenal.

_Find glory_

_Beyond the cheap colored lights._

_One song, _

_before the sun sets._

_Glory, on another_

_Empty life._

_Time flies_

_Time dies._

The rest of the play went on as it should, Rachel as indignant as always as a new cast took over the roles that she had come to love before. All except when Roger invaded the stage. It was as if her whole perception changed. It didn't matter that Adam Pascal wasn't singing, it didn't matter that he almost looked too young to play the part. All that matter was that she believed every moment he acted out, she believed every word that left those lips.

For someone like Rachel, waiting at the stage door was something that she did as a child, waiting anxiously for her favorites to come out and talk with her for a few moments before going on with their lives, never to remember her. She decided long ago that that would not be her approach when she was on stage. She would document all that came to see her, she would take pictures of each so that she would always know who had come to past in her life. But tonight, she was going to be on the other side once more for she found herself standing outside of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.

Quickly he changed from his ragged Roger clothing into the jeans and sweatshirt he had worn to the theatre that night, running his fingers through his gelled hair before slowly opening the backstage door, waiting for the mass of people to crown around him as they did on most nights. It only did wonders for his already inflated ego. But then, he saw a pair of eyes he did not expect to see. Brown orbs that had captivated him in _One Song Glory_, a gaze that he had admired. Miss Rachel Berry, the woman who he had seen steal the stage as Whatsername stood before him. "Well, I didn't expect a star like you to be out here waiting for me," he muttered as he made his way through the crowd, her smile even more radiant when up close. "Well, I just had to wait for the man who tried to take the role of Roger from my beloved Adam Pascal." He gave a throaty laugh, smiling to her before leaning closely to whisper in her ear. "If you wait for me, I can show you all the ways that I am better than Pascal."

_Conceited was definitely an understatement. _Being as noisy as she was, Rachel had begun to ask the veterans of the stage door questions, grateful when they did not recognize her. "He's a bit on the 'I know how brilliant I am' side, but he makes up for it with his recognition of us. He never leaves us hanging out here." _Great_ she thought as she watched the door open, watched as he stepped out, and locked his blue-green gaze with her own. He spoke to her as if he knew her, spoke as if he had seen her on stage and she didn't know why her heart seemed to be skipping a beat. She retorted just as cockily, standing her ground and making it known that he wouldn't get in that easy with her...but oh was he good. "What makes you think that I don't have other things to get to?" And all she saw was his smirk once more, that glint in his eye that made her breathe shorten and her heart flutter. "You'll wait."

Moment passed by and countless girls stood by, waiting for their brief moment with _their _Roger. She waited and waited, and for a few moments she thought that he had forgotten about her completely, that it had all been a play. Until he returned.

At first, they silently walked together, Jesse with his hands in his pockets and Rachel's hanging at her sides. "You know, I saw you in _American Idiot_. Your performance was almost flawless, only a few moments when I thought that it could have improved." _That's a lie,_ he thought, cursing his immediate loathing nature. Why couldn't he just accept that she was good? That she was amazing? "But that was mainly because of Johnny, he was hard to believe at times." _A lie, once again._ He just wanted to make himself believe that he could do it better, that he could have play Johnny because something in him wanted nothing more than to be her love interest. "Want to go for a coffee? I don't think drinking tonight would do any good for your performance tomorrow?" She nodded as they walked, not having the nerve or the willpower to suggest something else. She had his attention and that was all she could ask for. "Course."

Coffee came and went and so did the hours they spent together, favorites being shared and ambitions being admitted. She hated that time seemed to fly and that she had no way to stop the clock from ticking. "I better be going, I have to get a goodnights rest for tomorrow," she sighed as she spoke. The anguish was present in every word that slipped from her lips. "Obviously, you have to be prepared for tomorrow." He said as they stood, Rachel moving to go down the opposite end of the street from where Jesse was headed. "Rachel?" He called out when she was only a few feet from him, turning to face him once more. "Can I see you again?" He sounded almost terrified to her. _Oh and how the bravado slips._ "It depends how hard you try," _and since when did I become a vixen?_

The day came and went, the night being filled with Rachel rolling around sleeplessly throughout it. And as she made her way to the theatre, she wanted nothing more than to roll up in a ball and dream about the arms and the touch of the man that seemed to plague her night. "You ready Rachel?" The stage manager asked as she passed her dressing room, the modern day 'punk' attire that worked as her costume already in place upon her. "As always," she muttered as she made her way out to the stage.

_Do you know what's worth fighting for_

_When it's not worth dying for?_

_Does it take your breath away_

_And you feel yourself suffocating?_

_Does the pain weigh out the pride_

_And you look for a place to hide?_

_Did someone break you heart inside?_

_You're in ruins_

He was captivated, just as before and, as she did, he found himself outside her stage door, waiting for her to come out and greet him. It seemed to be their commonplace, at each other's doorsteps, waiting for the other to make a move. But when he saw the light in her eyes upon seeing him, when he saw her smile, he didn't need to 'wait' anymore. "You came!" She exclaimed as she made her way to him, always the actress to those surrounding her. But he didn't have the same sense of pleasantry. "Why wouldn't I?" He whispered with a grin as he waited for her to get closer before pulling her lips to meet his.


End file.
